Tcoitcak A Bird (English name unknown)
Tcûskai Weasel
Tskel Mink
Once Tcoitcak was going along near the house where two brothers,
Tcûskai and Tskel, lived. He was carrying a big pack on his back.
Tcûskai liked to stay outside the house looking around. Tskel scolded
him for not staying at home, so when he went away he always left his
tail hanging down inside the smoke hole and left his voice with his
tail. He said: “If Tskel calls me, you must answer: ‘I am here’!”
When Tcûskai saw the man coming with a big pack, he went to meet him.
“What are you packing?” asked he.
Tcoitcak didn’t answer.
“Let me see what you have in your pack,” said Tcûskai.
The man kept walking along, but didn’t speak. Tcûskai followed him and
teased him to tell what he was carrying. “Sit down and rest,” said
Tcûskai. “That pack is too heavy to keep on your back all the time.”
At last Tcoitcak got angry; he pulled the pack off his back and put it
on the ground. In that big bundle Tcoitcak had lots and lots of little
bundles. Tcûskai untied the big bundle, snatched one of the little
bundles and opened it. Out came Darkness, and that minute it spread all
over the world. It was black everywhere. Tcûskai couldn’t see, but he
snatched a second bundle and pulled it open. A crowd of stars came out.
In the big pack there were bundles of all kinds. Twilight was in one
bundle, Daybreak in another. Each big star that has a name was tied up
in a separate bundle,—Morning Star in one, Evening Star in another.
Whatever time there is of day or night was in Tcoitcak’s pack. Clouds,
Rain, Snow, everything was there.
Tcûskai was lost in the darkness. He ran around everywhere, but
couldn’t find his way home.
Tskel knew what Tcûskai had done, and that he couldn’t find his way
home. He let him run around for a long time, then he pointed his flint
knife toward the east, and cut a hole in the darkness to let light in.
It is because Tcûskai was running around so long in the dark that
nights are so long and dark in winter time.